Rollout of UNITINENTALS first 787

[The Inspector]

Boeing has rolled out the first 787 for UNINTINENTAL due to deliver in Sept of this year. The all white with UNITED logos paint job has a gold speed stripe that mimicks the Boeing wavy stripes on the prototype. Good lookin' paint job.

[WallyB]

[Enemy Ace]

I can't stand that paint job!!! United needs to just swallow up old low cost POS Continental and go back to the grey and blue with the big U on the tail!!!
Too bad it is starting to look more like continental acquired United than the other way around!!!AAAArrrrggghhhh!!!!

[The Inspector]

In this case, CAL had the money and UAL was sitting in an alleyway with an old hat and a handlettered sign saying 'Will fly for money up front' just like when US SCARE took over AMERICA WEST. 'low cost POS CONTINENTAL' is paying the bills

[CAPFlyer]

As "TI" inferred, United is also the "low cost POS" in the marriage. They'd been hemorraging money for years, doing everything they could (even before Sept. 11th) to cut costs, up to and including "Shuttle By United" and then "TED". Meanwhile, Continental has continued to plug along, doing their thing, dominating more of the market than most gave them credit for. When UAL finally got told by the banks that they weren't going to support a second bankruptcy, Continental was standing there, ready to take over, and United came on bended knee.

[Enemy Ace]

Sorry I remember flying (not all that long ago) on United when it was a class act, the thought that Frank Lorenzo's little experiment has taken them over is reprehensible. I have family members that had careers at Big U and what has happened there has just been criminal.
It's OK, there are still good airlines, you just have to go outside of the USA to find them.
...And I will be the first to say that a very large part of the UAL management team for the last 20 years should have been strung up from the closest lamp post. But that's a topic for another thread, another day.

[cwmc]

Yeah,
Your information is two decades behind.
A guy named Gordon Bethune fixed up the corporate side while CO had a pretty good operational side. United should have been gone forever with the merge, I'll never know why United's name was chosen to remain.

But back to the thread topic, anyone got any spy photos of American's paint scheme for the plastic dream?
Chris...

[The Inspector]

Right now the odds of AMERICAN being around when their first '87 is due to roll out are about 50/50.

[CAPFlyer]

If US Scareways buys American, the AAL name will remain and USAir will go away because AAL has all the prime landing slots. That was why Continental kept the United name. Even though Continental is now in control (and as said before, the COA that bought UAL is a much different airline than Bozo Lorenzo's trash), UAL had all the landing slots in the best markets so it's easier to keep the UAL name and negotiate for the fewer prime COA landing slots that they want to keep to be merged into UAL than try the other way around.

It's all about the international service. That's where the money is and has always been, especially the freight side.

I also think we'll see with new AAL the same thing we saw with the new Untied (intentional spelling) as far as aircraft orders go. They'll consolidate types and go to one manufacturer, most likely Boeing, where there is more money already tied up.